The 2023 Wimbledon Championships are upon us, with the qualifiers beginning Monday, June 26 to start off the three-week-long event.
The first match to take place on the grass courts was actually on Saturday when Princess of Wales Kate Middleton took part in a friendly against 20-time Grand Slam singles champion Roger Federer, who retired last year, as they spent time with the Wimbledon Ball Boys and Girls in a charitable endeavor.
Background
On the men’s side, a calendar year Grand Slam is still in play for Serbian phenom Novak Djokovic, who already won the Australian Open and the French Open this year.
The last man to accomplish the feat was Rod Laver, who did so in 1969. The reigning Wimbledon champion in back-to-back years, the 36-year-old Djokovic has won each of the four grand slam titles several times (his 23 career Grand Slam singles titles rank first all time), but he’s never done so in a single year. He’s well on the way to doing so in 2023.
Djokovic is the favorite
Djokovic is the overwhelming favorite to three-peat at Wimbledon, listed at -140 at Caesars Sportsbook. Be sure to use promo codes offered by Caesars Sportsbook if you want to bet on Djokovic, Wimbledon, or any other sport or athlete so that you know you’re locking in the best possible chances of winning big. Here’s a look at the rest of the field in both the men’s and women’s tournaments so that you know everything you need to know ahead of tennis’ crowning event.
Alcaraz is the second favorite
Despite his red-hot start to the year, Djokovic still doesn’t have the top spot in the singles world rankings: that honor belongs to Carlos Alcaraz Garfia of Spain, who has the second-best odds (+350) of winning the second Grand Slam title of his career at Wimbledon after claiming the US Open crown in 2022.
Alcaraz, who just turned 20 last month, holds a narrow lead in the rankings with 7,675 points to Djokovic’s 7,595. Those two sit pretty much alone as the next closest competitor, Daniil Medvedev (who hails from Russia, but must currently compete under a stateless banner in order to participate owing to his home country’s illegal invasion of Ukraine) sits nearly 2,000 points behind them. Medvedev, like Alcaraz, has just one Grand Slam to his name, the 2021 US Open.
Alcaraz and Djokovic have been neck and neck for much of this year, with the Spaniard gaining ground with the lesser tournaments despite Djokovic’s dominance on the biggest stage: Alcaraz just passed him up this past weekend thanks to a win in the Queen’s Club Championships: perhaps his hot streak will continue as he shifts from west to south London.
Alcaraz made it clear following his Queen’s Cup win that he agrees with the sportsbooks that Djokovic should be the favorite for the event.
“I ended the week playing at a high level so right now I feel one of the favorites to win Wimbledon, but I have to get more experience on grass. I have played just 11 matches on grass, so I need to get more experience,” Alcaraz said. “There are a lot of great players playing on grass so I need to go to Wimbledon playing my best, but I see Novak as the main favorite.”
Djokovic has been known for his fiery feuds with longtime rivals and would-be challengers alike during his nearly two decades as one of the greatest to ever play the sport, so it’s interesting to see Alcaraz (mostly) take the high road. The pair last met during the French Open semifinals, splitting the first two sets 6-3 (Djokovic) and 7-5 (Alcaraz) before Alcaraz started to cramp and Djokovic blew past him with a pair of 6-1 set wins.
Women’s field is more balanced
Over on the women’s side of the court, Iga Świątek of Poland has the best odds of winning the Wimbledon Trophy (+350). Based on the early odds, the women’s field seems to be much better balanced than the men’s bracket: behind Świątek (the current world No. 1, fresh off her second consecutive French Open win) sit Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan (world No. 3 with +375 odds) and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus (world no. 2 with +400 odds).
Conclusion
The field thins out from there, but without a clear-cut number one, it’ll be interesting to see who manages to stand out from amongst the pack. Sabalenka won the Australian Open to begin the year, while Rybakina is the reigning champion at Wimbledon: perhaps she has an advantage on the grassy greens of London.